The world of today, in the XXth century, is often called the world of technology and the XXIst century is said to be the age of global information. What does it mean for us? The industrialisation of our world, started in XIX century, is well seen and the dreams of people predicting the world technological progress are coming true, but even they did not think that this progress will be so rapid and there will be no barriers for it. Do we want this or not, the XXI-century community will cope with the evolution towards adjustment to the electronic era.

On this occasion there is a reflection coming through our minds. A human wanted so much to rule over the natural world that he did not noticed he is going to be dependent on his own products. In this dream of continuous transformation and pursuit of new ideas there was always the information flow playing a leading role. But only the XXth century with its aggressiveness created so vast amount of information, which is flooding our world and surrounding us, it is ubiquitous - that is what we call its globalization. Described by George McLuhan "the global village" became the reality.

The social and technological processes of changes touched also the present-day Poland and even speeded up in nineties. That means that every day people in Poland create new things, new ideas arise in their heads.

Without going into the complicated theories of information described by logicians, mathematicians and philosophers, let’s think what information really means for an average information sender or receiver? There are many opinions and definitions on this subject, very often complementary one to another, sometimes very different. Simply saying, information is each new signal which reaches a man and which gives an impulse to take an intentional action, it can be a picture, a sound, a word or a number. But some claim that information is something more then a signal - it is rather a group of signals (data, facts) suitable for processing, transmission, distribution and interpretation.

According to this definition data is "potential information" which becomes useful information for us after interpretation and processing and next, after organising and defining, becomes knowledge. Information understood in such way is necessary for everyone not only for research workers but also for an average man of each profession. It is needed to solve practical problems e.g. in trade, schools, hospitals or industry. That’s why it is so important to gain the essential knowledge of how to store information (if we need it for our further work), organise it (to use information optimally), adapt it for our needs and disseminate it.

When talking about globalization of information we should realise that every year there are thousands of new facts and messages given by competitive institutionalized and individual senders (press radio, TV, publishers) in various forms (articles, announcements) with the use of various carriers (paper, CD-s, video, disks).The mass of information has doubled within 6 - 10 years. Undoubtedly it is connected with telecommunication and Internet development and with easier access to new information sources, what is the result of democratisation of social life, equal access to education, freedom of speech, tolerance.

What are the factors influencing the quantitative and qualitative increase in the mass of information and information flow?

• people ambitions - their will to educate, to study,
• competition on labour market,
• increased computer power (speed and capacity),
• continuos improvement in technology (software and hardware),
• more attractive prices (disk memory, computers, printers etc.),
• digitalization of information (substitution of printed document form for digital form),
• miniaturization of equipment,
• standarization in information storing, processing and sending,
• extension of internal and external networks (Internat, Intranet, Extranet),
• international co-operation - extension of contacts and others.

Obviously the increase in the mass of information does not always go together with its quality, what can be well seen in Internet. The libraries have been coping with the editor’s market for many years; they create catalogues, bibliographies or indexes. But this, what is having place in network, needs different activities. That’s why it is so important nowadays to find a method to organize the network resources. We can observe the first successful tries of creating well-organized catalogues, indexes and tools for automatic data search. At last, after first amateurish and spontaneous actions of enthusiasts and computer scientists, we can observe the first signs of co-operation between computer scientists and specialists in information search and librarians, who know very well how to optimalize search tools and search language. There is no need to force the open door.

These, who produce information (scientists, engineers, doctors, teachers, journalists) want to distribute it, for many reasons: to raise their scientific prestige, to be first with a patent, to claim the recent results of researches, to emphasise copyrights, to be on time with a new "rumour" in a radio or TV station. In all of this cases it is very important to choose the right communication channel for the transfer of information and to know its advantages and disadvantages.

Oral communication channel in science
carrier - a man

It is the oldest form of communication, the best known, pleasant and easy to use. Information is distributed quickly, it can be modified and discussed. Senders and receivers stimulate each other. Personal contacts are very useful, profitable and important for us.

Oral communication channels in science: lectures, seminars, interviews, discussions, conferences.
However, such way of communication is seldom comprehensive; it can be difficult to give detailed information about methods, constructions or results in a verbal presentation. The information is often not verified, unstable, incomplete - it can lead to misconceptions.

Printed or written communication channels in science
carrier - paper, microfilm, microfiche

This way of communication was always very important in science. Printed information is more detailed, can be critically examined and verified, it is easy to cite, to store in libraries and then used when required; it is easier to organize. Resources of printed information can be divided into primary publications and secondary publications.

Primary publications: journal articles, pre-prints, monographs, patents, norms, raports, conference proceedings, theses and dissertations. These publications contain relatively new knowledge, not printed, in case of pre-prints - just given out on conferences.

The first European scientific journals were published during the seventeenth century, in Poland - during the eighteenth century. One of the oldest polish scientific journals was: "Nowe Wiadomości Ekonomiczne i uczone albo Magazyn wszystkich nauk do szczęśliwego życia ludzkiego potrzebnych", there were 12 issues of this journal printed in years 1758-1761, edited by Wawrzyniec Mitzler de Kolof.

Secondary publications: bibliographies, abstracts, indexes, encyclopaedias, subject dictionaries and others. These publications contain well organized and structured knowledge. First such publication began to be printed in the XIXth century, and than, on a larger scale - in the XXth century.

First Polish encyclopaedia was "Nowe Ateny albo Akademia wszelkiej scyencyi pełna, na różne tytuły, jak na classes podzielona, mądrym dla memoryału, idiotom dla nauki, politykom dla praktyki, melancholikom dla rozrywki erygowania", Lwów 1745-46.

Electronic communication channel in science
carrier - CD, computer disk (magnetic and optical stores)

With the development of computer technologies and extension of networks, the information flow channels, information retrieval, storage and sending tools, forms of documents have also changed. First time Poland as an Internet user appeared in international statistics in 1991 and from that time the use of new services is still growing http://www.winter.pl/ . Everyone wants to have an access to the information network and people keep asking all the time: what is FTP, Telnet, Usnet... etc.

The most important Internet services are:
Telnet - remote terminal connections
E-mail - correspondence
mailing lists - discussions
Usnet - discussions
WWW sites - data storage and access
FTP - files transfer
Teleconference - remote conferencing

Historically it is the oldest Internet service. It is used for getting a terminal connection with a chosen computer, it gives us a possibility to work on a chosen remote server. The use of a server depends on a server manager, he leaves his server open or closed for outside clients. Telnet has been used for many years by librarians and readers, who accessed the servers of particular libraries in order to use the on-line catalogues. Physicists and mathematicians often used Telnet to make complicated calculations (requiring quite a lot of power) and their machines could be located outside their home colleges. Today Telnet is used in a less degree; the new technical possibilities have appeared e.g. more useful for searching in library catalogues is World Wide Web interface, which is attractive, full of graphics and interactive connections.

It is the most important Internet service giving us a possibility of rapid direct information exchange. Electronic mail services revolutionised the world of information flow. Just a few years ago we did not think it will be possible to send a letter to Australia in a few minutes (especially when using Polish Postal Services) and today it is common and natural and we can not imagine our work without these services. Thanks to e-mail services, people and institutions all around the world send one to another information about their resources, exchange comments, opinions, views, send text and graphic files. Unfortunately because of the common use of e-mail services, the beautiful epistolographic tradition slowly disappears. E-mail users use many abbreviations, they do not care of style and official forms. In Internet, everyone calls each other by his first name (it is thanks to the English language and its informal form: you). E-mail service has a number of advantages: its speed, dependability (a letter not delivered comes back with a comment), its accessibility (you can take your e-mail from the other computer e.g. in USA), is not expensive (minimal costs of data transmission), universal, suitable for serial correspondence or automatic answers. The first part of e-mail address: bebe@bu.uni.torun.pl -- shows a user, the second part -- the name of a server: @ = at i.e. "on" or "at".

This service is mainly based on sending e-mails within small groups of people. A letter written by one person reaches all subscribers of a list. To manage a mailing list, a special software, so-called LISTSERVER with its own postal address, is needed. It manages the set of lists, takes all applications, sends lists and answers received questions. Mailing lists are often used in institutions, factories for solving current problems. The groups of interests are created, within which the current problems are discussed.

Groups for discussion are known also as Usnet - very efficient and extensive system of information dissemination. It is used mostly for current exchange of opinions and news and for solving proffesional problems. It is different from mailing lists, because all information is not sent but stored in server memory. To read it you have to connect a server. There are millions of people within over 25 thousands of groups discussing every day. In Poland we had in 1997 over 150 groups and the number of lists is still increasing. The mailing lists are very useful, but they should be used in right way. Usnet has its own, not written, etiquette and each its infringement is criticized by other users. Usnet was created to exchange information but it is often used by commercial companies as a market, they flood the network with advertisements and offers of their products. Usnet is often visited by maniacs and joke makers, who make an information mess.

Information on WWWsites is used by these who create it and by these who are looking for it. Thanks to such new technologies, each institution may quickly, inexpensive and aesthetically create its own information, which will be open to everyone in every part of the world and it is for institution's business to make this information readable and widely attainable. The effects of its work will be used by everyone, who views Internet and reads its files.

Many scientific institutions have the ambition to have WWW files in two languages: national and English. Every day a few thousands of new pages are created and 100 millions of people use them. The number of pages is so large, that we need specialized tools to arrange and organize them. Such tools are: catalogues (metaindexes) like Yahoo and standard search engines like Exite, Alta Vista, Infoseek.

One of many advantages of Internet is that its files contain the most important journals, magazines. Not all of them are of free access, but many of them offer at least a part of their contents. Also the internet press started to be created. The 1994 year is called to be the beginning of the electronic press. Today every important newspaper or magazine has its own press page in Internet. In Poland we also have quite large list with such titles like: Rzeczpospolita or Gazeta Wyborcza and computer-oriented magazines like PCMagazine, Internet, Chip, WebKurier and many others.

This service helps us to transfer various files (text, binary, sound or graphic files). All machines all over the world have so-called public access to files archives and are able to use them. This way we get e.g. freeware/shareware ( old versions of WORD or NETSCAPE). During FTP sessions, the standard user name "anonymous" is used and your own e-mail address should be given as a password. The biggest files archives in Poland are : ICM or Cyfronet in Cracow

It is the service of the foreseeable future, because it requires quick connections, greater flow capacity and modern equipment in conference rooms (cameras, screens, loudspeakers). The aim of creating such connections is to ensure full comfort in leading discussions, clarity of sound and picture for all participants (partakers).

The most popular client's software for the following services :
E-mail - MS Outlook, Express, Netscape Mail, Eudora, Pine, Pegasus Mail.
FTP - WS_FTP, CuteFTP, Crystal FTP, Terrapin FTP, FTP Vojager
Usnet - Forte Free Agent, Microsoft News, Netscape News.

We have to learn how to move in the world of global information, because this is the world surrounding us and very important for us. Each new knowledge on this subject may be this essential one in the crucial moments of our lives. That’s why it is so important to realize what information really is, which channels it flows; all channels for information flow are very important. In our professional life many times we will face a problem - to search for important information and then it will be easier for us to move in a space which we know and understand.

Page elaborated by: Bożena Michalska